Clearly, Jinke's engineers don't know how to say no. How else to explain their enthusiastic product pipeline (http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/English/embedpro/newpro.asp) for the upcoming year? Of course there is no way of saying if they'll actually succeed, but here is what could make us e-book fanatics all very happy in 2007:


Hanlin eReader V2c: 600x800 6-in, GPRS/CDMA, release: 2006-12-31
Hanlin eReader V2t: 600x800 6-in, touch-enabled, release: 2007-4-30
Hanlin eReader V2d: 600x800 6-in (2x), release: 2007-06-30
Hanlin eReader V9: 825x1200 10-in, release: 2007-08-31
Hanlin eReader V9c: 825x1200 10-in, GPRS/CDMA/WiFi, release: 2007-09-30
Hanlin eReader V9t: 825x1200 10-in, touch-enabled, release: 2007-09-30


Thanks to Snappy for the news. Feel free to join the ongoing discussion (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8530).

What? No color? ;)

I know several people looking at business apps were hoping for larger screens, so the V9 should be welcome news to some verticle markets. Still, I would rather they put their energy into their existing products. The existing V2 still needs works, from what I understand. And if they want to really get going in the west, they need to find a good partnership. Wouldn't the V8 make a nice eBookWise II, for instance? At least get a port of the DotReader going.

Jack

All I can think of... More the merrier! ^_^

The dual screen, if set up in software, could span a page across both of the dual screens. While keeping size down.

Tnks for the heads up!

I'd be happy even witht he normal V2 (or the one with the touchscreen) if they actually manage to get it shipped to Europe sometime...I think i'll try to contact them again and ask them how far they are with the V2 and whether I could buy a black V2 from them...^^

I just found something very interesting on the Jinke website...a FORUM!!!

So, now my time will now have to be spread over foru ereadedr forums instead of just three in the future...
Here is the link:

http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/developer/index.asp

Not much there yet, but I guess we should be able to change that pretty easily...

2nd from the left on the bottom looks *very* similar to the Sony Reader, just two buttons on the bottom instead of the right.

Hi guys,

I’m Morgan, the principal of eReader project of Jinke. Firstly thank Alexander for providing us a good platform for exchanging ideas and study. Salute to you!



I also thank CommanderROR and snappy and all the speakers who submit many good ideas and suggestions about eBook device. Your suggestions are very helpful for both eReader amateurs and manufacturers like our company. Also salute to you.



Jinke Company is a hi-tech company with university background, now it has 22 years history. Since 2000, Jinke began to devote to R&D and production of eBook device; we have designed and produced dozens of types of product, and have begun the OEM cooperation with some overseas companies. By the end of 2005, the accumulated sales quantity is over 150,000 units, Hanlin also become the first brand of eReader in China.



But Jinke Company is still a localized company with less than 200 staff, now we haven’t the capability for developing the international market, at present we focus on OEM and ODM cooperation for the international market. In the future, Jinke company will devote to the R&D of eReader for providing cheaper and more open eBook device to the user.



According to our experiences of Chinese market, comparing with MP3, the eReader have many differences, it need a large industrialization environment, especially in content providing. Therefore, the development and process of eReader is slower.



The current technology can’t reach the requirement of people to the eReader. For example, the screen isn’t colorful and flexible, the display speed is slower and price is still high. All these issues need to be solved by the increasing technology and special IC in the future years, all list limit the current sales of ebook device. Jinke Company will devote to these works, and try to provide a more open technology environment.



The product plan of 2007 you saw in our website (http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/English/embedpro/newpro.asp ) is just a draft for discussion. I’m very sorry that I didn’t declare it to you all before we put the plan on the website. Originally it is a draft for discussion, which needs to be discussed on the top management meeting of our company. But I suggested that put the draft plan on the website, in order to let more users to join the discussion. Welcome your comments.



Thank again to CommanderROR and snappy and all the speakers who deliver the suggestions and advices in this forum. And I also welcome you all to attend the discussion in our forum: http://www.jinke.com.cn/compagesql/developer/index.asp Thank you!

Thank you for joining us!

It is always good to see a company taking an active interest in the ideas of the Community.

I have one thing to say about the whole ebook affair:

I think we need to make a difference between devices that are book-replacements for fiction books and devices that are used for academic, technical and other text.

For Fiction books, a display of 5-8" should be optimal, so I think the 6" screen is rather good although I like my 8.1" Iliad screen very much and think that a little more space can't really do any harm.
An ebook device in this category needs to be rugged, lightweight and easy to handle. It needs to be a device that I can pick up and use for reading, just like a paper-book. Some thought ought to be given to navigation and to the sorting of books on the memory card. If I use a 1GB card, I can put very many books on it and I need to be able to browse through them/search for a specific book quickly and easily. Apart from that, I'd make the device as basic as possible to provide optimum battery-life and ease-of-use.
Annotation, scribble and similar features that require a full-screen touchscreen are optional for that in my opinion.

For the other sector, I think a 10" screen would be very nice, fullscreen touchscreen for annotation, filling in forms and similar things and maybe some WiFi added in for better communication between devices.

Then, there are various other, smaller sectors where the Hanlins could be used as a sort of PDA replacement, but for the reading/writing application that I see as main foucs-point of eink devices, I think the above two scenarios would be pretty accurate.

When it comes to Software, I'd recommend providing a basic OS with readers for Wolf, HTML, TXT and PDF and then leave the rest of the development to the community. I don't know how many "free" developers we still have here at the forums since Scotty, arivero, antarctica, jaed and some others are busy working on the Iliad, but I still think that a lot could get done in a short time if you manage to provide a few samples of the V2/V9 devices to developers around the world.

I'm not sure about the OEM/ODM thing...my feeling tells me that it will probably make things slow and expensive for all involved, but I can't really comment ont hat with authority. Maybe setting up a distribution network would work better than marketing the devices under a different name in every country?

Thanks again for joining us, I'm sure the community will be able to provide you with lots of helpful feedback both here and at your forums!

Abour the v2D, I have a toshiba sigmabook in my collection and it is more impressive to the general public than the one page displays. Of course it does not really makes sense from a pragmatical point of view, but it could work from the point of view of marketing: the Sigmabook really seems to be a book. The casing here is very important, because Toshiba and Panasonic really shape it to be a book.

It could be done more useful perhaps by allowing one of the screens to have tactile input, so it could work also as a notebook in landscape position, drawing the touch and keyboard pads in the tactile screen and then using the other screen for word processing etc, and leaving to the user the impressive capability of "moving windows" to from the "screen area" to the "keyboard area"!

You need a real tactile screen for people to use the fingers, not the wacom one.

Of course you could also provide a special case to fit one V9c and one V9t, the case should give the book shape and to connect both via a wired connector, so they could share information. That sounds expensive and perhaps not very marketable. A power user would prefer to bluetooth a keyboard to the V9c


By the way, if anyone know how to do documents for the Sigmabook, please tell me! it is getting dust :(

@arivero

I don't really like the dual-screen idea. Input, especially large-scale input that would justify the dual-screen approach is not really feasible with eink because of the slow speed (or that is the impression I get when using the onscreen keyboard or the scribbel function on my Iliad). for reading, it could be interesting, but I think i'd always prefer the smallerformfactor and eaiser "holdability" of a one-screen device.

For the other sector, I think a 10" screen would be very niceI really think that A4/Letter is needed for the Corporate/Academic settings -- a lot of things in those areas need a standardized size & aspect ratio, because the formatting/layout matter. :shrug:

Otherwise we're pretty much on the same page as far as what these things ought to be. :smile:

I agree, larger formats than 10" would probably make a lot of sense. A4/letter is pretty much standard, so maybe it should be in the Portfolio, for business customers...

The 10" model is a definite step in the right direction. I would love an A4/Letter sized device with PDF capability. Most of the content that I use day to day is A4/Letter PDF (stock research reports, public financials, legal filings, academic journal articles, etc.).

Bruce

My wife is working really hard to become a college prof. One of the services available to them these days is something called "TurnItIn.com (http://turnitin.com/static/home.html)" which checks for plagiarism (I copied the word from their site, 'cause I can't spell it on my own :tongue3: ). However, that means that she gets the papers electronically, so if she uses the service, she has to print them out in order to grade them.

She loves the idea of an easily readable device that would let her mark up the papers and zap an e-copy back to the student while letting her file her notes and grades for future reference (like at final grade time, or when mommy & daddy come to argue with her about why their little angel flunked, which was most likely 'cause mommy & daddy have always made everything in little angel's life all better, and not let little angel learn that screwing-up hurts and so little angel shouldn't do things that are probably going to end up being screw-ups).

Such a device would appeal a great deal to teachers & professors (as well as corporate types -- not to mention lawyers!) as education gets more and more electronicated, just for grading purposes, alone. Then there's articles, and not having to carry all those piles of papers home, decreased likelihood of misplacing a paper, and all the other stuff that we've discussed countless times around here but always drag back out when it seems like someone might be listening in particular. :grin:

My wife is working really hard to become a college prof. One of the services available to them these days is something called "TurnItIn.com (http://turnitin.com/static/home.html)" which checks for plagiarism (I copied the word from their site, 'cause I can't spell it on my own :tongue3: ). However, that means that she gets the papers electronically, so if she uses the service, she has to print them out in order to grade them.

She loves the idea of an easily readable device that would let her mark up the papers and zap an e-copy back to the student while letting her file her notes and grades for future reference (like at final grade time, or when mommy & daddy come to argue with her about why their little angel flunked, which was most likely 'cause mommy & daddy have always made everything in little angel's life all better, and not let little angel learn that screwing-up hurts and so little angel shouldn't do things that are probably going to end up being screw-ups).

Such a device would appeal a great deal to teachers & professors (as well as corporate types -- not to mention lawyers!) as education gets more and more electronicated, just for grading purposes, alone. Then there's articles, and not having to carry all those piles of papers home, decreased likelihood of misplacing a paper, and all the other stuff that we've discussed countless times around here but always drag back out when it seems like someone might be listening in particular. :grin:

From the client base I have. I can tell you the Medical prof will go crazy when it reaches that stage of a or close to full paper size with witting. PDA and Tablets just dont hack it.

I completely agree. An A4 reader is a must.

A4 is the most used standard among heavy consumers of written information e.g.: lawyers doctors, scientists and people in academia.
In these areas we use a lot of short-term/ short-lived information. Documents lose value really fast and usually end up being destroyed.

Maybe one could say that ebook devices right now are not so much for readers but for printers. :-)

It's in these segments that and eReader has potential (maybe even more than for ebooks, since there is clearly no emotional attachment to the classic and much loved pbook, which is to say that a pbook nowadays has somehow an inherent value. As we all know, sometimes that value can itself be a barrier for mass ebook success.

I personally would be happy to cope with a4 split into two portrait a5 pages (do readers do this already?; don't personally need colour as I'm all about the maths, and would much prefer something portable.

However, for reading score...that's another thing...being able to play music off a real ebook device would friggin' rock. Of course, then annotations would be really nice : )

So, I'd ideally like two, then (with lots and lots of memory capacity).

Annotations would be nice, but...insofar as the a5 model would be concerned, I'd be able live. I mean, as it is, I have to carry about these annoying papers, only small sections of which I need to concentrate on at any given time, generally simultaneously scribbling on a sheet of paper...I always carry 'round a notebook, and can't see an ebook reader changing that any time soon.

: D

Could 10 inch displays display most a4 things with the margins trimmed? I have no real idea of scale...excuse me...

What we don't need is another format for ebooks. Wolf format. POO! Sorry, but that sucks. What we need is a reader that can handle multiple existing formats besides PDF. LIT, PDB, LRF would be good choices to support. But unless it supports something that is already out there for ebooks other then PDF then it's almost useless. Sorry. But I don't see yet another non-standard format taking off.

My wife is working really hard to become a college prof. One of the services available to them these days is something called "TurnItIn.com (http://turnitin.com/static/home.html)" which checks for plagiarism (I copied the word from their site, 'cause I can't spell it on my own :tongue3: ). However, that means that she gets the papers electronically, so if she uses the service, she has to print them out in order to grade them.

She loves the idea of an easily readable device that would let her mark up the papers and zap an e-copy back to the student while letting her file her notes and grades for future reference (like at final grade time, or when mommy & daddy come to argue with her about why their little angel flunked, which was most likely 'cause mommy & daddy have always made everything in little angel's life all better, and not let little angel learn that screwing-up hurts and so little angel shouldn't do things that are probably going to end up being *****-ups).

Such a device would appeal a great deal to teachers & professors (as well as corporate types -- not to mention lawyers!) as education gets more and more electronicated, just for grading purposes, alone. Then there's articles, and not having to carry all those piles of papers home, decreased likelihood of misplacing a paper, and all the other stuff that we've discussed countless times around here but always drag back out when it seems like someone might be listening in particular. :grin:
Would not a laptop with a detachable screen that doubles as a tablet do all these things?

Yes, JSWolf, it would, but it has all the attendant drawbacks of a tablet, heavy, hot, backlight glare, poor battery life, etc. :shrug:

That being said, the way things are looking like they're going, a tablet of some sort is most likely what she'll end up with, if she pursues that approach. :nice: